How I’m Saving My Family of 9 Hundreds of Dollars Every Year

As a family of 9 we get a lot of questions about how we manage to make things work financially. And, to be honest, it’s not always easy!

That’s how Thrifty Nifty Mommy started to be honest. I was looking for ways to save money for our family (of only 3 at the time) and turned to cloth diapers and coupons and started sharing about it on this site.

Saving my family money, wherever and whenever possible has always been a priority of mine.

It started before we even had kids and continues today.

A few things have really helped our family financially over the past few years and I’d like to share those with you today.

Budgeting

Sit down and write out how much money you have coming in each month. Then write down your must-pay bills (like mortgage/rent, car payments, insurance, electric, etc.).

Once you have those listed, take a look at what’s left over. From that amount, set aside a reasonable amount for your food budget.

After that, everything else (yes, that includes Netflix and cable) is just an extra. You have to decide which of those extras are worth the money you are spending each month.

If there are some you can do without, try cutting them to see if you can live without them for a month or two. You might be surprised!

Most of all, just make a budget and stick to it! One of the budgeting methods we like is the envelope budget system and Dave Ramsey.

There are many ways of budgeting though, just find one that you will stay accountable to and stick to it! Make sure you budget money for savings too, even if it’s just a little bit each month.

Budgeting has made a huge difference in saving my family money each month! If it’s not in the budget, we just don’t get it or we save up for it.

Don’t Buy on Credit…Unless You Pay It Off Every Month

Years ago we decided to stop buying things on credit OR taking out a loan on anything except for our mortgage. If we don’t have the cash for it, we just don’t buy it.

The past two vehicles we have purchased we’ve saved up for and paid cash for. This has saved us thousands in interest.

We DO use our credit card. In fact, we put most of our purchases on it every month BUT we pay it off, usually multiple times a month. We never carry a balance over.

Because of that, we don’t pay out anything in interest AND since it’s a cashback card, we are actually earning money every month just by using them.

It was not always like this for us. Like most Americans, we owed thousands of dollars in student loan debt and car loans.

We buckled down and lived very cheaply for years and put all of our extra money into paying those things off.

Yes, it meant for a time we were doing without a lot of the things we would have wanted and skipping vacations, but it was worth it,

Coupons

This might seem like a no-brainer to some people, but coupons have saved our family a lot of money over the years and shouldn’t be ignored.

Admittedly, since our budget isn’t as tight now as it was in the past, I don’t use them as frequently as I once did, but I still use them as much as possible.

It’s easier than ever these days because many apps provide you with coupons that can be scanned at the register. I love using Flipp app for that!

I also shop at a grocery store that offers free grocery pickup and coupons in their app. I save hundreds each month that way.

I once took a grocery bill that was in the $130 range down to about $11 and some change! That’s not always going to happen of course, but if you get serious about coupons, they truly can save you hundreds of dollars every year.

Clipping coupons (or saving them to your phone) is just one of the ways you can make money from home, in your pajamas.

Here’s an entire post dedicated to saving money at the grocery store to help you cut costs there even further.

Cheap(er) Meals

We can’t have steaks every night for dinner, that’s for sure. Although we DO have them occasionally when I find a great sale.

I often try to stretch one meal into two. For example, I will make a roast chicken that we eat one night, then I take any remaining chicken and add that to cowboy casserole the following day.

Here’s a whole post about ways you can repurpose sloppy joes and another one on how to repurpose pork chops for inspiration.

I tend to fix most of our meals with cheaper meats and/or cuts (chicken, ground beef, cube steak, pork chops) but do occasionally sprinkle in other types for variety when they are on sale.

Over the years I’ve assembled quite a few recipes that are cheap and yet still delicious and filling. I pair most main courses with either a potato, rice, or pasta side. All of these things are filling and cheap.

Cheap Recipes

Here’s a list of some of my favorite recipes that don’t break the bank.

• Cube Steak Recipe (to be honest, I like these just as much as regular steaks at a fraction of the cost. They are also very fast to make too.)
• Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe – We pair this with grilled cheese sandwiches for a filling, cheap meal
• Chili Recipe – I like this one because it’s usually good for 2 meals. The second meal I fix these air fryer baked potatoes and then we use the chili and all of the toppings from the night before as the potato toppings. It’s so good!
• Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe – This tastes like the classic you might have had growing up but it’s much healthier while still being affordable.
• Ham Spaghetti Salad – My family loves this recipe and it’s SO easy to make! It’s definitely one of the recipes I fix when I need something quick.

Kids Eat Free (or for less) Nights

Like any family, we still like to go out to eat sometimes. Kids Eat Free nights are some of our favorites to take advantage of!

Please check your local restaurants to see if they are curently running these deals as they definitely can change.

Some of the restaurants we frequent for deals are:

• Denny’s has Kids Eat Free Nights in our area on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 6-8pm. For every adult entree you purchase you can get up to TWO kids meals for free. This is the best deal we’ve found as far as discounts on kids meals.
• Buffalo Wild Wings has kid’s night on Wednesdays, where the meals are priced at just $1.99 each with the purchase of a kid’s entree.
• Olive Garden, while it doesn’t have a set night, frequently sends out coupons for $1 kid’s meals with the purchase of an adult entree. You just need to make sure you are signed up for their email newsletter that goes out.

These specials on kid’s meals have been a big help in saving my family money when we want to go out to eat or are traveling!

Other Dining Out Tips

Besides utilizing the Kids Eat Free/Discounted nights, there are a few other things we take advantage of when we go out to eat, to maximize our savings.

First, we always order water, for everyone. Purchasing drinks for 9 people could easily add $30 or more to a bill, just with beverages alone.

Stick with water! Not only is it cheaper, but it’s the healthiest option too! If you’d like a little bit more flavor, ask for lemon to add to it.

My kids can seldom finish off a whole kid’s meal, especially if we are eating at a place that offers freebies at the table before we eat (you know, like breadsticks at Olive Garden, chips at a Mexican restaurant, etc.).

Rather than letting each of my younger children order their own kid’s meal, we either order 2 kid’s meals to split between them or one main adult entree to split between them. Even with ordering less, we still usually take home leftovers for them.

Of course, once our children are old enough to eat a full meal, we get them a full meal, but there’s just no point in wasting it when they are young.

I also have a tendency to fill up on the “freebies” included with a meal (like the never-ending salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden) and then have a large portion of my main entree to take home and eat for a second meal later.

Lastly, pay attention to specials that happen during certain times of the day. Sometimes we will go out for a late lunch/early dinner before the lunch specials end (sometimes it’s good until 3pm).

It’s usually the same size portions at a savings of about 30%!

Saving Money When We Travel as a Family

Traveling with a big family can get expensive for sure, but there are still ways to save money! When staying at a hotel, we always look for one with a continental breakfast.

This easily saves us $40 at least on a meal. Once we get to our destination we try to rent a house or condo.

Not only is the price generally not much more than a hotel, but having a kitchen or kitchenette that allows us to prepare more meals “at home” instead of eating out the whole vacation saves us hundreds of dollars!

You can also get these portable bunk beds to save money on the number of beds you need. While they do cost a little bit upfront, after using them for just a few trips they pay for themselves.

Plus, they have come in handy for us when the kids spend the night at a relative’s house.  You could also go for individual cots, like the Joovy Footcot.

We almost always drive instead of flying because the costs to check baggage and pay for seats for so many people is quite a bit.

Plus, we’d have to rent a van once we got to our destination and deal with flying car seats. It’s just much easier these days to drive, even if it takes an extra day of travel.

Lastly, sometimes saving my family money means we don’t take a vacation that year, or we just do a staycation to save money.

For example, we planned to go to the beach a few years ago but then just a few months before we planned to go, Jacob broke his arm. That resulted in thousands of dollars in medical bills.

We would have loved to have taken a vacation, but it wasn’t worth it to go into debt to do it. Instead, we stayed home and found ways to have fun together locally.

Buy Nothing Groups

There’s this whole movement called “Buy Nothing” and it’s Facebook groups for your local area. If you search Facebook, it’s likely they have one for you already but if not, you can start one!

Most Buy Nothing Groups cover a small, local area (for example, the one I am part of doesn’t even cover our whole county). People give away SO much in those groups!

Often if there is something I want but don’t NEED, if I am patient enough to wait long enough, I can get a slightly used or sometimes even new one through that group.

For example, just before Christmas I almost bought a Crock Pot for myself. I had been using my Instant Pot’s slow cooker setting but I really wanted a designated slow cooker.

I literally walked into Walmart, put one in my cart, but then decided I just didn’t want to spend the extra $60 around the holidays because I didn’t NEED it.

Earlier this week, someone gave me a CrockPot on my Buy Nothing Group and it’s nearly brand new!

I’ve gotten lots of items over the past year from this group, including quite a few items I used as Christmas gifts for my kids.

They didn’t care at all that they were used because they were unique items they really loved: The Wizard of Oz Monopoly for my Wizard for Zellene, LEGO sets for Jacob, and a huge collection of Garfield comics that all of my readers love.

You can also ask for items you want or need in Buy Nothing Groups and often receive items that way as well.

Create Your Own Gifting Group

If you don’t want to join Buy Nothing, reach out to your friends and see if they want to form a gifting group. The ladies at my church started a Signal group where we all post items we want to get rid of (for free).

I’ve gotten a few great items that way as well and have given items away there too.

Hand-Me-Downs

When it comes to clothes for my kids, I’m all about the hand-me-downs!

We save all of the clothes that my oldest girl and boy wear that are still in good shape for their younger siblings to wear. 

We also gladly accept hand-me-downs from friends and relatives. This has saved us hundreds of dollars on clothing costs for our kids over the years.

Cloth Diapers & Wipes

Diapering a baby is SO expensive….and you are just throwing all of that money literally into the garbage. I started cloth diapering with my first baby and it has saved us thousands of dollars over the years.

Although there are times we do use disposable diapers, like when we travel or overnight (I really like Freestyle diapers), using cloth diapers for at least some of the baby years has been great for our family!

Cleaning cloth diapers is not nearly as difficult as you might think either.

My personal favorite when it comes to cloth diapers are bumGenius Elemental diapers. They are so easy to use and well made too!

DIY to Save Money

Anytime we can DIY and save money that way, we try to do it. For example, making this homemade laundry detergent is a way to save a good bit of money every year, with just a little bit of work. I’ve also got a recipe for homemade body wash too.

If you’re handy at the sewing machine, you can make reusable paper towels (also called unpaper towels) to save money on paper products.

Blogging

Lastly, I can’t overlook what I’m doing right now! Blogging has been a great way for me to contribute to my family’s income.

I’m able to do it from home, around our schedules, homeschooling, vacations, etc. Of course, you have to enjoy writing for blogging to be an option for you!

It’s definitely not something you’ll see immediate income from but if you stick to it, eventually you can make some extra money for your family by maintaining a blog. 

Thank YOU for visiting my blog and reading my posts!

These are the ways I’m saving my family money each year. Do you have other ways you help your family save?